Telltale Games

[El Héroe Oscuro]

I wanted to for awhile create a megathread on all Telltale Games related. If you've never heard of Telltale Games before now, it is a company that specializes on games in episodic fashion, combining rudimentary gameplay with rich arcing stories and game-changing decision making. On top of the recently announced new Telltale game centered around Minecraft dubbed "Minecraft: Story Mode" that got announced today, Telltale Games is known for their hit games such as:

• Tales from the Borderlands
• Game of Thrones
• The Wolf Among Us
• The Walked Dead (S1 + S2)

As I said, this is going to be a Megathread for all things Telltale Games related. Which games have you played/what games do you want to play? What do you think about this type of gaming separated into episodes? These are just some leading questions, and feel free to elaborate on anything TTG related.​

 

[Juno]

On top of the recently announced new Telltale games centered around Minecraft dubbed "Minecraft: Story Mode" that got announced today

I have no idea how that would even work considering how different those games are, but I am so excited.

I recall complaining a lot about linearity and the illusion of choice in The Walking Dead in a previous thread, but I do love their games and the stories they tell, even if my choices don't truly impact the story as advertised.

I'm really curious about how they will pick it up in season 3 though,

Spoiler:

since season 2 actually had multiple endings!! Some people are saying for the sake of convenience they'll mostly write the story so that all the endings will converge to one point and just pick up from there (ie. Jane/Kenny dies, you're left alone with AJ anyway) but I really hope they don't do that. I would not mind waiting a little longer if they actually have a branching story in this one, but it would be tough to pull off well.

Same thing can be said about the choices in The Wolf Among Us, but I dunno, I guess because the story was so cool and different, I really didn't mind. I loved the concept of Fabletown so much that after I played the game, I went and bought the comics (which I highly recommend if you liked The Wolf Among Us - lots of other great characters and it really expands on the backstories of everyone).

As for the whole episodic thing, I'm a little torn - on one hand, waiting really sucks and sometimes, they take so long to come out with the new chapters that I either don't remember too well what happened last (though the "previously, on _______..." thing helps), or I may have temporarily lost interest in the story by the time it comes out. But on the other hand, TTG actually goes through the speculation/message boards on their forums and writes the stories according to the feedback of fans, which is cool sometimes.

But for chapter 2 of The Wolf Among Us

Spoiler:

it seemed like they didn't like the fact that too many people had figured out the plot at that point, so they took forever to release the chapter and rewrote the whole thing, which resulted in it being a little short by their standards. Plus, the original idea they had was pretty good, shame they scrapped it just because it wasn't a "surprise" anymore.

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

I like the games they make but I don't like the way they release them.
Episodic way of release just doesn't work with me.
I always wait for the complete version.

 

[TRIFORCE89]

I enjoyed their take on Monkey Island. I would have played through their Bone series if that didn't die after two episodes. The other big ones I haven't played or seen the content they are based on, or I have and wasn't interested. So I haven't tried them out

 

[Judge Mandolore Shepard]

When it comes to Telltale Games, I have only played two games made by them. The two games I played are Poker Night at the Inventory and Poker Night 2. For games I would be interested in playing, Tale from the Borderlands certainly would.

 

[srinator]

Tales of borderlands was amazing, epic first episode. Eagerly awaiting the next one :o

 

[Abnegation]

Telltale are one of my favourite developers right now, and totally deserve all the praise they get. However I'm not a fan of the episodic releases. I prefer to be able to binge play all the episodes, and you could easily be waiting several months between releases (a la Episode 1 -> 2 of The Wolf Among Us). That's really my biggest gripe, I know they like to get feedback from fans and everything but I'm not sure it's completely necessary any more now that they've built so many games and know what's successful and what isn't.

I'm really interested to see their take on Minecraft though, it seems weird as hell that they would take it on. But I'm kind of excited.

 

[EeVictinee]

I love the games they make, but the "tailored on how you play'" is BS.
Most of the time, the same thing pretty much happens.
Ex:
Save either Doug or Carly.
Choose anyone, but it won't matter since they will die in the same way anyway.
OR
Save this dude, only for him to die later.

 

[GanguEevee]

Well,I wanted a thread like this to appear. First off,I'm happy that I found out about this new game through this thread. I think I might like MC: SM! Secondly,I still have not played any games from Telltale,but I did watch videos about some of their games. (Oh,if only I had the monies for them games)

I'm wondering what their gonna do with the Minecraft: Story Mode thing. I'm really curious. But,of course,I'll get what I want unless I wait patiently. :3

 

[GreenFlame]

The Walking Dead is a great series that pulls off drama really well. I also like Telltale's Back to the Future games, and Sam & Max.

I'm really curious about how they will pick it up in season 3 though,

Spoiler:

since season 2 actually had multiple endings!! Some people are saying for the sake of convenience they'll mostly write the story so that all the endings will converge to one point and just pick up from there (ie. Jane/Kenny dies, you're left alone with AJ anyway) but I really hope they don't do that. I would not mind waiting a little longer if they actually have a branching story in this one, but it would be tough to pull off well.

Spoiler:

Pretty sure Telltale said that Season 3's story won't be related to Season 2 (obviously there'll be references, but it won't be about the same people anymore).

 

[Kameken]

While I do love most Telltale games, the fact that so little of what you choose matters is very annoying.

The Walking Dead Season 2 Spoilers:

Spoiler:

The fact that Sarah wasn't savable in The Walking Dead S2 is proof they cared more about being sad and edgy than making the player feel like an actual tangable part of the game's world.

 

[GreenFlame]

While I do love most Telltale games, the fact that so little of what you choose matters is very annoying.

The Walking Dead Season 2 Spoilers:

Spoiler:

The fact that Sarah wasn't savable in The Walking Dead S2 is proof they cared more about being sad and edgy than making the player feel like an actual tangable part of the game's world.

That particular thing kinda bothers me, but I think people expect way too much from Telltale's "The story adapts to how you play". You can't expect huge storyline drifts, because that requires much more development work for what might be the small percentage of people that choose to make a particular choice. You have to remember that there's only one central storlyine that you're meant to experience, it's still just one game.

 

[Kameken]

That particular thing kinda bothers me, but I think people expect way too much from Telltale's "The story adapts to how you play". You can't expect huge storyline drifts, because that requires much more development work for what might be the small percentage of people that choose to make a particular choice. You have to remember that there's only one central storyline that you're meant to experience, it's still just one game.

Then they need to not advertise the games specifically around being tailored to your choices. If it tells you that at the beginning of the game, whether I risk my life, or sacrifice another, to save a guy needs to not only have an effect on how an old guy looks at me in a single cutscene. I realize they can't make entirely different games based around single choices, but I still don't understand why they couldn't just make the entire game and then add slight changes based on who you save, big choices like that. The way the story jumps through hoops just to stop your choices from having meaning is lazy and annoying. "Oh, you saved Carley instead of whats-his-name while running from the pharmacy? Better randomly make someone crazy so we can off her too."

I honestly wouldn't mind the blatant lie about the effect your choices have if the writing subtly got around it, but it just throws it in your face.

Spoiler:

Also I'm writing this at 5AM on no sleep so I'm probably overselling how bad I think this is.

 

[EeVictinee]

The Walking Dead is a great series that pulls off drama really well. I also like Telltale's Back to the Future games, and Sam & Max.

Spoiler:

Pretty sure Telltale said that Season 3's story won't be related to Season 2 (obviously there'll be references, but it won't be about the same people anymore).

So my ending doesnt matter?
The f outta here.
At least we get references.

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

So my ending doesnt matter?

Did it ever matter in Telltale games?

 

[GreenFlame]

So my ending doesnt matter?
The f outta here.
At least we get references.

Spoiler:

Like I said, references and some sort of explanation as to what happened with your ending are very likely (I mean, why wouldn't they?). But even if Season 3 was still following Season 2's story, they couldn't make five different storylines based on what ending you had. Your ending will probably matter in some way, but we'll be on a different story now.

 

[Kameken]

In a desperate attempt to keep this thread alive, I'd like to start a discussion about

Spoiler:

What choices everyone made in the two TT games with real choices; that is, The Wolf Among Us and the Walking Dead Season Two.

I personally chose to kill the crooked man by throwing him into the well in the former, and kill Kenny, then go with Jane and invite the family inside in the latter.

 

[Juno]

In a desperate attempt to keep this thread alive, I'd like to start a discussion about

Spoiler:

What choices everyone made in the two TT games with real choices; that is, The Wolf Among Us and the Walking Dead Season Two.

I personally chose to kill the crooked man by throwing him into the well in the former, and kill Kenny, then go with Jane and invite the family inside in the latter.

The Wolf Among Us

Spoiler:

For The Wolf Among Us, I don't really have a definitive answer as I played through both scenarios on multiple save files - I think my "cannon" ending is imprisoning the Crooked Man though, because everyone looked appalled if you kill him, even though I really wanted to do that. Imo the big picture of the game's story was changing Bigby and Fabletown for the better and learning to do things by the book instead of ruling through fear and intimidation, so I think that's the "right" choice.

Walking Dead Season 2

Spoiler:

This one was a really tough choice - no matter who died at the convenience store, it didn't feel right. But for me, I let Kenny kill Jane and left Wellington with him. Is that the best choice for Clem and AJ? Probably not. It was a very emotional ending, and you finally get to see that really caring side of Kenny once again, but at the same time, there's no saying how long it'll last and when he'll go nuts and let his anger blind him again. Still, that was my ending.

 

[Kameken]

Walking Dead Season 2

Spoiler:

This one was a really tough choice - no matter who died at the convenience store, it didn't feel right. But for me, I let Kenny kill Jane and left Wellington with him. Is that the best choice for Clem and AJ? Probably not. It was a very emotional ending, and you finally get to see that really caring side of Kenny once again, but at the same time, there's no saying how long it'll last and when he'll go nuts and let his anger blind him again. Still, that was my ending.

Spoiler:

It's odd that you thought similarly to me about Kenny, yet kept him alive. I'm not trying to say it's wrong or anything, just interesting. I figured that Kenny wouldn't be able to live with himself if he murdered Jane, and that it was about time his own existence stopped torturing him. Plus, I couldn't bear to see Jane hurt after all she did for Clementine.

 

[Juno]

Spoiler:

It's odd that you thought similarly to me about Kenny, yet kept him alive. I'm not trying to say it's wrong or anything, just interesting. I figured that Kenny wouldn't be able to live with himself if he murdered Jane, and that it was about time his own existence stopped torturing him. Plus, I couldn't bear to see Jane hurt after all she did for Clementine.

Spoiler:

I didn't think as far ahead as you did at the time, so I guess in that moment my mind was just going "aah I can't shoot Kenny" - there's a lot of mixed opinions about him, I know, but personally I have always liked him. So between shooting him and doing nothing, I went for the latter, even though I knew it would lead to Jane's death. She wasn't completely innocent in what had happened, with that stunt she pulled using AJ, but she still didn't deserve to die.